Simple Stories Simple Vintage Weathered Garden – Part Two – Amy Kattenbelt

Hello Magpies, Amy here to share another layout using the beautiful “Simple Vintage Weathered Garden” collection by Simple Stories. I have also used a JD3D print piece as my subtitle.

I started by creating some mixed media using a piece of Vicki Boutin’s 12×12 Foundation Paper as my background. The photo I am using is of my son and our dog whilst out on a walk.

The first thing I did was use the packaging technique and 3 shades of Distress Oxide to create a watercolour effect to the central area of the paper. I have used the colours Speckled Egg, Chipped Sapphire and Bundled Sage. I picked these colours as I wanted to bring in some more blue tones to match my son’s jumper in the photo. If you have never heard about the packaging technique before I strongly encourage you to give it a try. It involved applying some wet medium to a piece of flexible waste plastic packaging, the kind many scrapbooking items come in. In my case I stamped some ink from the pads and then added a small squirt of water to make it watery. You then dab and smoosh the packaging (wet side down) to the paper to create a pretty watercolour effect. Because I am using special cardstock designed especially for mixed media, I did not have to apply gesso or worry about my paper warping with the wet. I also added lots of splatter in the same colours using a paintbrush. Take your time to slowly build up the layers and colours.

On top of this layer I then decided to add some white acrylic paint. I tore up a scrap of corrugated cardboard, making sure the edges were not straight, and peeled back one side to expose the inner bumpy layer. I used this as stamp with thick white paint to add texture in the form of white lines to my background. I just kept reapply paint and stamping areas of the background until I was happy with how it looked. It was actually really fun to do, and I will be trying this technique again!

I then selected four papers from the 6×8 paper pad and punched strips with a fancy border punch. I added some white machine stitching to each of these as I layered them on top of each other. The stitching ended up being covered up though, so when my layout was nearly finished I went back and added more stitched lines as it’s a great way to add texture and detail.

I layered my photo onto several different paper from the paper pad. I distressed the edges of the paper too. I tucked in some small pieces of ephemera such as the yellow ‘TODAY’ piece and a piece that had a clip at the top. On top of the photo I added one of the vintage framed pieces of ephemera. I added this photo cluster to the centre of my layout.

I placed some ephemera pieces and stickers, from the sticker book, to both sides of the photo and paper stripes. I also added a piece of ephemera to the top right of my photo. I created my title using the alphabets that come in the sticker book. I fussy cut two of the butterflies from the 12×12 paper called ‘Fills My Heart’. To give them lots of dimension I curled the wings around a circular pen and glued them down just along their body. In this close up you can see how this brings them to life.

Next I added some foam and sticker hearts around the layout as well as adding a small cluster of stickers to the bottom left corner of my layout. I added the date too. To complete the layout I added a ‘these moments’ 3DJDPrint phrase piece below my paper strips and added splattering of fine black ink.

Thank you for coming to take a closer look at how my layout came together. We would love to see what you have been creating over on our Facebook group. Take Care and Stay Safe,